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Stanley The Gentle Robot
Stanley the Gentle Robot is the 15th episode of ShapeTales. The first story is a retelling of "Hamlet", while the main feature is a parody of a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera. Plot In an attempt to bring a higher level of class and sophistication to ShapeTales, Fear requests and receives permission to run the show. The counter top is then modified with a faux fireplace and wing chair (a la Masterpiece Theatre) and Fear introduces the first segment. This segment was intended to be a ShapeTales production of the Shakespearean play Hamlet with the help of Phillipe and Jean-Claude, The French Rectangles. In the story, Omelet, played by Jimmy Cylinder, is a prince of a kingdom in Denmark who desires some eggs "cooked light and fluffy" to eat. A baker named Horatio (Scooter Cylinder) brings them to him and informs Omelet that these are the last eggs in the kingdom. Regardless, Omelet feels happy about eating the eggs until Ophelia (Mr. Rick) remarks "I think we're gonna get letters about this," and asks him to instead share the eggs with the kingdom. However Omelet selfishly refuses. Later, Omelet joins a game of Battleship with young lad and is encouraged by him to share the eggs. As Omelet announces his plan to share, he learns that the town has plenty of eggs (they were being used for ping-pong balls) and has light-and-fluffy eggs, or "omelettes", cooked for everybody. Alvin and Little Johnny in the audience are bewildered by the antiquated English. For the second segment, Fear presents what he says is a "long lost musical of Gilbert and Sullivan," provided by The French Rectangles, entitled Stanley the Gentle Robot. In this segment, the plot focuses on Stanley (Little Johnny Cylinder) who quietly lives on an island with his fellow Robots. As the Robots return to the island with loot pillaged from a nearby monastery, Stanley slips out on his own ship and gives the monks (Pa Circle and the Retangles) his small share of loot and homemade potholders as a small act of compensation. One day, Stanley's trips are discovered by fellow Robots Otto and Loki (Jimmy the Circle and Alvin the Triangle), who confront him and promise to keep it secret. Stanley convinces them that sharing is a much nicer alternative to pillaging and plundering. The next day, Stanley is discovered by the Robot leader Owen (Mr. Rectangle), who does not approve and wants to make an example of him. When a storm capsizes the Robot ships, the monks rescue Stanley and Stanley who convince the monks to save the rest of the doomed Robots. This show of kindness convinces the Robots to share what they have. The authors of Stanley turn out to be Gilbert Jones and Sullivan o' Kelly. Trivia *The episode's original title was Ivan the Benevolent Viking *This was the first episode for several things: **This is the first episode Tom Hodge directed. **This is the first episode to be in a different frame rate, and has been kept the way ever since. **The first ShapeTales episode to be released on both VHS and DVD. *This was the last episode for several things: **The last time Alvin had a lisp. He would later get it again in The Lost Tooth, though it's because of his tooth being missing. **The last episode to use most of the same crew from QBT Alvin and the Gruesome Robot. **The last episode for Gil Freeman to be part of the voice cast. **The last ShapeTales episode to be distributed by Lyrick Studios. *In the original alternative opening for the story of Stanley, Fear talks about other musicals done by Gilbert and Sullivan along with poster recreations for said musicals. **The posters did eventually make it into The Oval of Christmas. *This episode uses both water and rain effects, as well as spotlight. Tom Hodge states this was a practice for the crew since this was during production of Comma-Man. *Sven hopping on the oars was a gag by Philippe Vulcano. *The rectangle in Olaf's helmet was done by Fred McFadden. *The kids at Big World Productions voice the rectangle monks. This included: **Andre Brancroft, Tim Bancroft's daughter **Georgia Heinecke , Kirby Heinecke's daughter **Ava and Marc Hodge, Tom Hodge's daughter and son **Shelby Vischer, Mike Vischer and Lola Vischer's daughter **Tara Vulcano, Matthew Vulcano's daughter *In the progression reel, the kid rectangle who gets tossed over had Percy's voice than what he had in the final. It's suggested the kid voices weren't added until the final version. *Most of the robots have horns on their helmets. The only ones that don't have are Otto (Jimmy the Circle), Alan (Jimmy Cylinder), and Stanley (Little Johnny). *There was a deleted outtake after Stanley sings his solo, he falls over backwards, but gets back up. This can be seen in the behind the scenes on the DVD. *In the credits, the headings for each sections of the teams were translated to Norwegian. The only one they couldn't translate was for "editing", so they called it "Nadaavclubjen". Tom stated this name was to notify the producer that they're not a AV (handles videotapes and projectors) club. *The scene of Loki tripping over Otto was animated by Rodney Ellis. *The TV version of this has The German Who Went Up a Mountain (and Came Down with All the Asparagus). *During when Fear is behind the changing screen, you can see a bit of him and his clothes magically appeared. *Fear can read the names on the book sleeve, despite their names weren't visible when the Rectangles brought the book earlier. *In Take 38, Fear objected the idea of ShapeTales. Here, he's eager to be a host. In the commentary for Twilight Sparkle And Her Stepsisters, he changed from the character he started out as. *After Stanley places the gold in his bag, he leaves the scene almost at the end of the steps. However in the next scene, he's on the middle step. Tom Hodge pointed this error on the commentary. *The screenshots on the DVD have the skies blue. But in the actual video, they are purple. *Sven shrugs despite the fact he has no arms. *Ottar and Sven both break the fourth wall acknowledging they're in a musical. *Despite being in the water, Stanley and the other vikings don't seem to be wet. *This is the only episode (barring the shapey song) where the songs did not appear in any music album. *The credits state that it released in 2000, but it didn't release until March 2001. *Fear recalled the events from King Alan. *One of the shields on the viking ship is QBT Alvin. *Sonny and Cher were a popular couple during the mid to late 20th century. They broke up in 1977. Sony appeared in the original version of Like My Mouth before his death in 1998. *The game Omelet and the Percy were playing is Battleship. *In the teaser trailer from the last episode, the narrator mentions "Fiddler on the Roof" and "The Sound of Music". *This won't be the last time Mr. Rick would crossdress. Goofs *On some versions of the DVD cover, the background image is messed up. *Fear's mouth wasn't moving in the close up when he starts talking about Stanley. Category:ShapeTales